Alex Rider
by Leticia99
Summary: Alex rider. Teen spy extraordinaire. No-one knew just quite how much he would go through when he joined the spying world. Some felt guilty, some mourned the loss of a once innocent child and some… well some thought it was of little consequence. Alex finally finds someone who can be trusted, but will he let himself fall into a trap he's been burnt by before?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Two months. That's how long his last mission had taken. Two freakin months. 'It'll be easy' they said 'quick and easy' they said. But then again, that shouldn't be a surprise, he's Alex Rider and none of his missions were ever anything other than practically suicidal.

If all had gone to plan then he'd probably have managed to get back to his house in Chelsea within a week. But things never go to plan. Infiltrating yet another terrorist organisation had been surprisingly simple for Alex, he'd had plenty of practice after all, but what he didn't count on was there being a mole in MI6. Someone in the organisation had been bribed and had subsequently shared every detail they had about the teens mission.

This, of course, led to Alex being captured and held for weeks in an attempt to retrieve as much information as possible and, even though he sent out a distress signal, it quickly became clear he had no backup. Long story short, Alex managed to overpower his guards and do what he does best, blow up the terrorist building with the biggest explosion possible. Mission success. But, as usual, not without its scars.

After two months of almost non-existent sleep, Alex enters his house in Chelsea and glances around quickly for threats and makes his way upstairs. He doesn't stop until he reaches his room, face planting on the bed and falling into unconsciousness almost immediately.

**KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK **

After what seems like mere minutes there's a sharp, loud knock on the front door.

Alex is woken and is instantly on high alert, sitting up straight and wincing at the pull of his stitches. A quick glance at the clock puts him in an even worse mood. 4AM. Two hours. Two freakin hours of sleep. Alex was pretty certain he was going to murder whoever was on the other side of that door.

'Better be important' he grumbled to himself as he retrieves one of a number of guns hidden around the house and silently makes his way downstairs.

Taking a deep breath, he readies himself and puts on his 'spy mask'. Cold indifference. Unreadable. Mentally counting to 3, he pulled the door open, keeping the gun at the ready but out of view in case of any unwelcome visitors. Though to be honest, _those_ kinds of visitors don't usually knock.

The faces which greeted him on the other side of the door made him wish he'd never gotten out of bed. He could have just pretended to be out, why didn't he think of that earlier? It would have been better than this.

K-unit. The one and only. Wolf, snake, eagle and even the 4th SAS member, turned spy, Fox (or Ben as Alex had come to know him by last time they had met). The whole bloody zoo had arrived and was standing at his doorstep. Perfect.

"There better be a good reason for this" Alex glares, dropping the gun back down to his side and maintaining his mask with ease even with the numerous questions flying round his head. None of them looked surprised that it was him but he could see the undeniable flicker of concern that crossed their faces as they looked him over and saw the bruises littering his face and the careful way in which he held himself. Wolf instinctually stood a little straighter when he saw the firearm in the spy's hand

"God cub, you look like crap" was the genius response eagle shot back as he barged into the house with a somewhat forced grin on his face. The others took this as their cue to awkwardly make their way into the house too and Alex couldn't muster up the strength to stop them. And at this moment in time, when his whole body is battered and bruised and littered with future scars, he just wanted to sleep away his pain.

With a roll of his eyes the teen spy pushed the door shut and stalked past the gathering in the hallway, trying to hide his new limp and the favouring of his left side as much as he could, not wanting to show any weakness, especially not in front of his current audience. He made his way straight to the kitchen. Coffee. He was going to need coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The four men sat around the kitchen table glancing awkwardly at each other and back to the boy. Snake watched closely for signs of injury as Alex made drinks for them all.

"Two teas and three coffees" Alex spoke up, putting the hot drinks in front of each of the men

"Here, let me get that for you" snake stood and handed out the rest of the mugs

"I'm perfectly capable" Alex grumbled but slowly sat in his chair, secretly grateful

"You look pretty banged up there cub, what happened?" Wolf frowns looking unusually concerned. Alex just snorts at the comment and ignores the question.

"What are you doing here? I wasn't told you'd be coming" Alex grumbles, downing the rest of his coffee and heading back for a second cup.

"Special ops" fox answered "they thought it be best no one knew, apparently that includes you too"

"They just didn't want to give me time to object" he grumbled and then muttered some less than pleasant words under his breath along with what sounded like "controlling bastards"

"It's four in the morning, couldn't you come a little later?" he frowned, sitting back down carefully, wincing slightly as his ribs throbbed

"Trust me cub, we weren't keen on the idea either. But coming in early means there's less likely going to be someone watching the house, plus we don't have to worry about nosey neighbours." Snake sighs, frowning slightly as he glances over the teen's visible injuries.

Alex couldn't help but refute that logic, if someone was watching the house then they wouldn't be stupid enough to take their eyes off it just to get a good night's sleep, they'd be watching constantly, especially if it was someone he'd dealt with before.

"Where'd you get the gun?" Wolf interrupts

Alex glanced at the gun he'd discarded on the kitchen side

"Long story" he murmured. Wolf seemed to sense something the others didn't because he dropped the questioning immediately upon looking at the teens face.

"You know how to shoot?' Eagle speaks up. It was a fair question; Alex hadn't been allowed to participate in firearms practice whilst training with them

"Well enough" he shrugged. He knew he was being purposely awkward with them but he could seem to find the energy to respond any more than he was, his brain was beginning to get fuzzy with the lack of sleep and the throbbing covering his body was beginning to get worse.

"Hmm, You never answered the question, what happened to you?" Fox asks, a frown tattooed onto his face throughout the conversation. He'd been aware the boy was involved with special operations, but nothing that could cause quite that much damage.

"Got into a fight with some guys" he supposed it was somewhat true "guess I didn't quite realise just how many there were"

"Have you been to the hospital?" snake quickly buts in before Fox could say anything more.

Alex couldn't hold back the sigh that escaped his lips. He supposed the five minutes he'd spent in there getting hastily stitched up before being pulled out for his mission debrief could count "Yup"

"Medication?" snaked pushed

"Just a few painkillers" He murmured. A few pointless painkillers, he added in his head. MI6 didn't want him having anything near strong enough as what he needed, they didn't want to risk their best agent getting addicted to the things.

"Stop mothering him snake" wolf rolled his eyes, jabbing the medic in the ribs with his elbow

"Well someone has to make sure he's not dying. We are supposed to keep him alive, wouldn't look too good in us if he died would it?" Snake hissed, jabbing the unit leader back.

Though the boy was visibly exhausted, wolf had noticed throughout the conversation how alert and on edge the spy was, he'd glance around the room every now and then as if expecting intruders and would be watching the soldiers carefully every time they moved. Wolf knew what that meant, he recognised the signs immediately.

"They told us a little about what you do for SO cub. How long you been home?" Wolf asked concerned, the boy obviously hadn't transitioned back to the civilian life much at all. Alex's eyes were suddenly on him, assessing the man, until he suddenly realised what the soldier had seen and toned down the look.

"Plane touched down 6 hours ago, had a three hour debrief at headquarters and two hours of sleep" Alex answered honestly, surprising himself. Why was he being so honest with these people? He barely knew them.

Though he looked like a teenager, he spoke like a soldier, wolf couldn't help but notice with a frown "how long were you away for?"

This made Alex pause, just how honest was he willing to be with these people? He frowned as the words left his mouth before he had time to decide "about 2 months" he murmurs getting up to fetch another cup of coffee.

Everyone was silent for a few seconds, taking the words in.

"Maybe that's another reason we're here then cub, get you settled back into a civilian life and mind-set" Wolf reasoned, pushing past the hundreds of questions floating around his head.

"They sent four SAS soldiers to get me back into civilian life? Not sure how that's supposed to work" Alex sniggers, rolling his eyes.

"You all set for Christmas cub?" Eagle interrupts, changing the subject to a safer one

"Christmas?" He'd forgotten about that. When he left for the mission it was October, it was now December.

"Yeah Cub, Christmas. You know, trees, lights, presents. God cub it's in a week,"

"I haven't really had much time" he excused. Ironically it had been the longest two months in his life and sitting in a cell and being tortured by the latest evil organisation gave him more than enough time to himself to agonise over his situation

"I thought kids were supposed to like Christmas?" Eagle asked, turning to wolf for some wisdom

"Not everyone turns into a toddler at the thought of Christmas like you do eagle"

A week until Christmas? Had he really been gone so long? After the initial shock he calmed, remembering he has few if any gifts to buy.

After an unsuccessful chance at normalcy with the pleasures, he'd quickly lost contact with the family, with Sabina.

After tom was shot at, he was quickly pushed away and kept at arm's length by the teen spy, not wanting to chance a second close encounter.

Everyone at school had branded him an outcast, a drug taking gang member. They wouldn't get within ten feet of the teen.

And Jack… Jack was gone.

For the first Christmas in his life Alex was well and truly alone. He had no gifts to buy except flowers for the rows of graves he now mourns over.

'Cub? Cub? You still in there?'

"What?"

"What are you planning for Christmas? Seeing family?" fox was asking

I don't know yet' he murmured, maybe visiting his parents wouldn't be such a bad idea, he hadn't visited their graves in what felt like forever.

"What about all of you? You're not stuck with me for Christmas are you?'

"We'll all take a day or two off around Christmas to take some personal time but we'll be around Christmas Day. Didn't think it would be fair for one of us to have that day off when the others won't. "

"Right. That sucks"

"It's the job cub. We haven't had Christmas at home in a long time. This will be the longest any of us have had to spend Christmas with family since we joined up."

That Alex could sympathise with, since joining mi6 he's spent every Christmas Day either on a mission in a foreign country or in the hospital. He regrets not forcing the issue now that there's no one around to spend the holidays with, he should have made the most of it while he still could

"Go back to bed cub, you look like crap" wolf ordered as the boy zoned out again

"You don't need to ask me twice" Alex smiled tiredly, slowly standing, still being careful not to show the extent of his injuries. "There's not much if anything in" he murmured apologetically, nodding towards the fridge

"It's fine cub, well sort it later, get some sleep" Snake dismisses, paying close attention to the way the teen was holding himself as he finally nods in agreement and makes his way to his bedroom.

'Two freaking months?!' Wolf was the first to break the silence 'it's bad enough that they're using him, but two months? That's…that's just.'

"Somehow I doubt they were using him for low security missions like they led us to believe. You don't get battered like that by doing the easy stuff" Fox frowns


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Eyes drooping

Fists pounding against his stomach

Wrists chained to the ceiling

Whips slicing into his back

Needles puncturing his skin

Burning, the whole world burning

Begging, pleading, praying

"Cub, Cub!" Voices echoed around the cold darkness "wake the hell up kid"

"Take a breath cub, calm down. Your safe, you're home"

He suddenly jumps up and disappears to the bathroom, door slamming behind him, coughing and gagging heard through the door

"Go on downstairs, I'll stay here. He doesn't need an audience right now" wolf orders, following cubs trail down the hallway to the bathroom.

"Cub?" He calls through the door "I alright to come in?"

With no answer he enters anyway finding the teen sitting in the floor, knees up to his chest, back against the bath, head down, hair covering his eyes.

"Cub?"

Cub slowly looked up and in that second wolf learnt more about the boy than he ever could before. The dark haunted look in his eyes told a story that no words could ever tell. In that moment wolf knew exactly who Alex was. A veteran. A seasoned soldier. For a boy who could have been no older than 18, he suddenly looked ancient.

Wolf didn't say a word. Just sat on the cold bathroom floor and wrapped an arm around the shoulders of the shaking, broken boy beside him. It was rare for wolf to show such a side of himself but this was the side Alex needed to see right now, the kid needed someone there to lean on, to provide silent support.

It wasn't long before the teen spy had tears rolling down his face and sobs racking through his body. Finally, after years of hell, Alex Rider broke. He let go of his emotions. The emotions he'd wrapped up so tightly inside and hidden so deeply from sight.

Wolf just held him tight, still not saying a word.

When Alex had finally calmed down, wolf ruffled his hand through the boys hair and stood.

"We all go through tough times after getting home cub, talk if you need to, I'm not gonna force you to spill everything." was all wolf commented on the issue before wiping the concerned look off his face, knowing the kid probably felt more than embarrassed at the moment and probably wanted to be left alone

"breakfast is downstairs if you want any, snake made it so it should be pretty decent, he's the only one of us who can make anything even remotely edible anyway" he added before leaving the room

It wasn't long before Alex had steeled himself enough to show his face in the kitchen. As he entered a cup of coffee was placed in front the empty chair at the table. "I don't usually approve of excess coffee consumption but I will make an exception for today" snake informed him, placing his own cup of tea on the table.

Before he could respond, not that he knew what to say, a full plate was placed in front of him and everyone dug into their own food. It was as if the morning's drama had never happened, and that was something Alex was eternally grateful for.

"You didn't have to sleep in the living room" Alex frowned, breaking the unusually comfortable silence that had settled in the room.

"Yeah we were told you have spare rooms but we didn't really wanna go snooping for them" wolf mumbles, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly "we didn't get chance to ask when we got here, you looked shattered. You can show us after breakfast"


End file.
